The Fantastic Four - First 10 issues (1962-1963)
The members of the Fantastic Four owe their amazing abilities to their elastic leader: scientific stalwart Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic. As a starry-eyed student at State University, Reed already had set his sights on interstellar travel. His roommate and best friend, Ben Grimm, jokingly promised to pilot the craft. Working years later as an aeronautical engineer, Reed finally realized his lifelong dream. Exhausting the majority of his vast inheritance, he funded the construction and launch of a starship. Reed recruited Ben, who had become a successful test pilot and astronaut, to fly the vessel. Reed's longtime sweetheart and fiance, Sue Storm, joined him at the launch site.
When the government threatened to cut off its partial funding of the project, Reed elected to embark on an immediate test flight. Ben opposed the idea, warning that the ship's shielding might prove inadequate against intense forms of cosmic radiation. Nevertheless, Reed persuaded his old friend to serve as pilot. Sue and her adolescent brother, Johnny, insisted on accompanying the would-be history-makers. The four stole into the launch facility, boarded the starship and blasted off in pursuit of scientific glory. They intended to travel to another star system and back, but a solar flare temporarily boosted the intensity of the ionizing radiation in Earth's Van Allen belt. Cosmic rays bombarded the ship's cabin, irradiating the four passengers and slagging the controls. Ben was forced to abort the flight and return to Earth.
Back on terra firma, the four discovered that the radiation had triggered mutagenic changes in their bodies. Reed could become malleable, Sue could turn invisible, and Johnny could generate fiery plasma. Ben stood transformed into an orange-colored, thick-skinned, heavily muscled, superhumanly strong "thing." It was Reed who convinced his friends that they should use their newfound powers for humanity's benefit.
Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, the Human Torch and Invisible Girl established their base atop the Baxter Building in midtown Manhattan. Financed by profits from the patents on Reed's inventions, the Fantastic Four set out to safeguard the world from any and all threats beyond the purview of conventional peacekeeping forces. Some time after the freak accident that granted the foursome its powers, Sue married Reed. Like all couples, the super-powered duo has experienced its share of problems -- thanks, in large part, to Reed's devotion to his work. However, they always return to one another. The two have one son, Franklin, who possesses latent mutant abilities.
The team first put its abilities on public display when the subterranean Mole Man attempted to take revenge on the surface world by destroying Earth's power plants and unleashing an army of gigantic monsters to annihilate the human race. The Fantastic Four turned back the Mole Man's threat, unaware that greater menaces awaited. As fate would have it, Reed again encountered his college rival, Victor Von Doom, whose face had been hideously scarred during an experiment gone awry. The newly christened Dr. Doom now ruled his homeland of Latveria with an iron fist -- his ghastly countenance cloaked beneath a metal faceplate, his body sheathed in nigh-impenetrable armor. Doom kidnapped Sue to draw her teammates to his castle. The would-be conqueror had created a time machine, and he demanded that Reed, Ben and Johnny travel into the past to retrieve a magical stone. Upon their return, the team defeated Doom.
Fantastic Four #1 (November, 1961) is nothing less than the comic book that put Marvel on the map. Before Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, or anything else emerged from the self-styled "House of Ideas," there was the Fantastic Four, breaking all the superhero rules and taking comic-book adventure -- not to mention comic-book sales -- to a new level. BY 1961, STAN LEE AND JACK KIRBY had done more for the comic-book industry than just about anyone else in the business. Little did anyone know they were just warming up.
They did it by taking every superhero cliché and throwing them out the window. Their team had no secret identities to hide, and they were a family more than a team -- literally, in the case of Sue and Johnny Storm (Sue and Reed would eventually get married -- another comics first). Reed Richards was a scientist who more often than not used his brains, not his elastic fist, to win a battle. Johnny was a teenager who was a hero in his own right, and not the sidekick of someone else (and he was a clever way to bring back the name, if not the character, of the Human Torch). And Ben Grimm, the rocky-faced Thing, was a reluctant hero whose gruff demeanor masked the self-pity he felt inside, knowing his great strength and fame came at a great price.
They fought each other, they made mistakes, and they always looked out for each other. At times, the book was more of a soap opera than an action-packed comic, with the relationships between the four often coming close to overshadowing the action packed into every issue by Kirby's bold artwork. The book would soon do better than Goodman could ever have hoped for -- it would quickly become the flagship title of an entirely new line-up that would completely change the face of the comic industry.
After a few issues, the not-too-modest tag "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" was added to the front cover of Fantastic Four by a not-too-modest Stan Lee. And for the 100 or so issues over which he and Kirby presided, he was right.
Fantastic Four issue #001 Nov 1961

Cover date: November 1961
Cover price: 10 cents
Current value: Anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000. Only 1400 copies are estimated to still exist, and only about 65 of those are mint.
This is it, the one that started it all, that changed they way superhero comics were created forever, the one that started a trend which turned millions of kids into hopeless fanboys.
story 1. The Fantastic Four!
13 pages :: Jack Kirby/George Klein/Christopher Rule
reprinted in Fantastic Four Annual 1
story 2. The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man!
13 pages :: Jack Kirby/George Klein/Christopher Rule
reprinted in Fantastic Four Annual 7
Fantastic Four issue #002 Jan 1962

The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls From Outer Space!
24 pages :: Jack Kirby/George Klein
Fantastic Four issue #003 Mar 1962

The Menace of the Miracle Man
23 pages :: Jack Kirby/Sol Brodsky
Fantastic Four issue #004 May 1962

The Coming of Sub-Mariner!
23 pages :: Jack Kirby/Sol Brodsky
Fantastic Four issue #005 Jul 1962

Prisoners of Doctor Doom!
23 pages :: Jack Kirby/Joe Sinnott
Fantastic Four issue #006
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Captives of the Deadly Duo!
24 pages :: Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers
Fantastic Four issue #007 Oct 1962

Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X
24 pages :: Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers
Fantastic Four issue #008 Nov 1962

Prisoners of the Puppet Master!
23 pages :: Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers
Fantastic Four issue #009 Dec 1962

The End of the Fantastic Four!
23 pages :: Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers
Fantastic Four issue #010 Jan 1963

The Return of Doctor Doom!
23 pages :: Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers